It's good to bring the maintenance stuff up to date, but I don't see how spark plugs or wires can throw off the spark timing by that much.

I'm tempted to question the measurement that says it's 34 BTDC.

You know the actual TDC mark on the crankshaft pulley is a single notch all by itself.
The set of 3 notches, center one larger, is located at 15 BTDC and is to be used with a timing light WITHOUT any advance dial setting on the timing light.

 

Too bad the chains on the Saab's weren't so bad. What a Saab story. Dead on with your post above and just kidding, well a little bit, about the Saab story.

 

??? (I don't get it)

 

Ok, so after the tune up, I had to reset the cpu to get the thing to run again, which I thought was kinda strange. And with the timing light it was just like you said, the middle of the 3 notches was in the marker with no advance set and the idle was around 700-750. Then I went through the gears, revved it a little, and let it settle back out. Now the center notch shows up with 15* advance set on the light. A couple more bumps to the throttle, 6*. 20 more minutes of "adjusting" the timing with the throttle and it finally settled out with the center notch in the marker with the 14-15* set on the light and the idle was around 950.

All this is taking place with no cel, could it be a cpu issue?

 

Have you actually tried to set the timing like in the video link in my earlier post? Lots of people tried to tell me it was not possible, however,On my car, you jump the obd1 connector and set the timing to 15* I then turned off the car, removed the jumper wire, cleared the cel, and wow what a difference, I needed to set mine because I removed the distributor while I was swapping the transmission, give it a try, you may be surprised. Good luck

 

Yes, you have to jumper the SCS connector. Among other things, that prevents the ECU from commanding the spark advance to go all over the place.

The smog shop should be expected to know about that... ?